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Retirement Job Search Tips

Meta: Three important tips every retiree must read before searching for a job. Learn how to be more targeted in your job search, use your age to your advantage and the one interview problem that could cost you the retirement job you’re looking for.

Retirement Job Search Tips

Three important things every retiree should consider when looking for a job

Finding a job after retirement may seem counterintuitive to some, but for many it’s a necessity for financial reasons. For those who don’t need a retirement job for the money, it may be just to keep you sane. It can be easy to follow into the trap of treating your age as a liability, but believe it or not, it doesn’t have to be a detriment to your job search. Check out these three job tips for seniors to help you land your next job.

Leverage your relationships: What good is a lifetime of living worth if you haven’t met a few people along the way. Hopefully you’ve made a few friends and have a family you can draw on for job recommendations. Ask around in your social network to find out who’s hiring and what tips they can offer you. Maybe you have a kid or grandkid that can point you in the direction of an employer who is looking for daytime help. Your best chance of finding a job is by using the people you know to get your foot in the right door.

Remain professional: Regardless of the age difference between you and the hiring manager sitting across from you, be sure to keep up the formalities of interviewing. Even if the manager is old enough to be your grandkid, you don’t want to treat him like that. No one likes to feel patronized, least of all the person making the hiring decisions. Treating a hiring manager in an unprofessional way will make them question whether you will do the same with customers and clients.

Use your age to your advantage: There are benefits that come along with age, and we’re not talking about senior citizen discounts (although those are nice). Being retired means you’re available for shifts that students and teens are not. Supermarkets and retail stores have an especially hard time finding people to work shifts in the middle of the day, and if you can, that’s one more weapon in your job seeking arsenal. In addition to shifts, there are entire retirement job categories that your age could help you get. Home Instead Senior Care and Seniors Helping Seniors like to hire people with life experience and familiarity with conditions such as Alzheimer’s.